My super hot Mango Habanero Sauce with real fresh habanero chili peppers and mango fruit.
This sauce is irresistibly hot and sweet, plus it also looks stunning!
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This is part of my homemade hot sauce series, which also includes the Thai sweet chili sauce and Buffalo sauce.
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🔪 How to make it?
Here is a quick overview to give you an idea of how this sauce is made. The full recipe is on the recipe card.
Step 1
Blend mango, habaneros, ginger, garlic, and water to a smooth paste.
Step 2
Transfer and heat up in a small saucepan.
Stir in vinegar, salt, and black pepper and cook until it bubbles.
Step 3
Take from the heat and mix in lime juice.
Transfer to a clean bottle or jar.
🥭 Ingredients
The habanero mango hot sauce is prepared with real whole ingredients, you will need fresh Mangoes and habanero pepper chilies.
- Mango - fresh
- Habanero Pepper Chilies - fresh
- Vinegar
- Ginger - Helps in preserving and adds flavor
- Garlic - Ginger's best friend. Helps to preserve as well and compliments the ginger.
- Salt
- Black Pepper
- Juice of a Lime - Adds some more acidity but also a touch of citrus, which will complete your hot sauce.
Mango
Pick a Mango variety that is super sweet.
The sweeter, the better, and I love using deep orange mangoes because the color of the sauce turns out vibrant and fuller.
Use Mangoes that are ripe, but never ever use mangoes that are getting spoiled and mushy because these can turn your sauce bad faster and that would beat the purpose of storing this sauce for a prolonged time.
If you don't get fresh Mangoes, then you have the option of using Mango Pulp/Puree.
Habanero Peppers
Use whole fresh habaneros peppers. Those are some of the hottest chili peppers out there!
I use yellow habaneros and I don't use more than three of those hot babies, because they are seriously naughty.
I advise that you use gloves to use habaneros because they can irritate your skin (and eyes!). Yet, you don't really need to cut open the chili peppers, I add them whole (with the stem removed) to the blender jar. So, if you are careful, you don't need to use gloves.
I tried to make this sauce with other peppers, including African bird eye chilies and Thai bird eye chilies. It never turned out that strikingly good.
However, I think you can substitute the habaneros here with scotch bonnets which are also very hot. They are also Caribbean peppers.
Vinegar
The vinegar you choose for this sauce will determine the pungent flavor of the hot sauce.
This is a taste preference; however, I do believe that some vinegar is more suitable than others.
Vinegar has an important part in this hot sauce. It makes sure that the sauce can be stored for a prolonged period of time, as it kills germs and anything bad that could turn your hot sauce bad.
Vinegar preserves the mango habanero hot sauce.
White vine vinegar might just be the best choice for this hot sauce if you want your vinegar to remain in the background to enrich the flavor profile.
I tend to use Asian rice vinegar for sauces because it's mild, but it might be too mild. If you want it less pungent, then use rice vinegar.
Another option is to use apple cider vinegar.
This one is not everyone's favorite, but I love the result of my mango habanero sauce with apple cider vinegar.
I also love using coconut vinegar, homemade fruit vinegar, or plain old white vinegar.
💭 How hot is this sauce?
Well, let's say this sauce is not made for the heat sensible.
It's a super hot sauce thanks to the habaneros and the sweet Mango, which kind of enhances the sauce all the more with its natural sweetness.
This Mango habanero hot sauce is hot, spicy.
You will mostly use 1–2 Tablespoons for your food.
That means the whole bottle/jar will last you an eternity!
💡 Tips
To prepare the mango habanero sauce you will need a good blender such as a Vitamix so that the mango, habaneros, garlic, and ginger are ground properly.
I wouldn't use a hand blender because it's not that powerful compared to a good blender and the chili is hot, so you don't want parts accidentally flying around.
Also, the moment you blend those chilies, you will be able to smell them.
My eyes started to itch slightly when I opened the jar, after the blending process.
Once all ingredients are smooth, transfer the paste into a saucepan and add the remaining ingredients.
I love using a non-stick PFOA-free saucepan. The sauce won't burn, and the flavors stay pure.
The sauce needs to be heated, to kill all the germs because you want the hot sauce to remain for a longer period of time.
🍱 Storing
You can store your DIY hot sauce in glass sauce bottles or simply in jars.
Wash out your bottles or jars, scrub them if necessary, and sterilize the jars in cooking hot water or in the oven so that all the germs die out.
If you do that, you will extend the shelf life of your hot sauce!
You can choose to extend the shelf-life of your hot sauce further by water-bath canning it.
Store your jars on a shelf away from direct sunlight, heat, and humidity. Keep your hot sauce in the fridge once opened.
If you live in a tropically hot and humid climate, store them in the fridge at all times!
The sauce will keep well for 10 months at least in your fridge.
📜 Uses
- to coat wings to make buffalo style chicken wings
- to dip in fried chicken, nuggets, chicken tenders
- over BBQ meat, ribs, and sausages
- drizzle over pork carnita wraps or tacos
- in lentil soups (one of my favorite unlikely uses)
- in a gourmet burger
- to pep up your hot dog
- to enhance a salad, dressing
- over scrambled eggs for a change
- in mash potato
- on a freshly baked pizza
- in your pasta sauce just before serving
- shrimp, fried fish and fish sticks dipping sauce
- dip for french fries and baked potato wedges
- as a salmon topping
- over jerk chicken
- as a dip with peri peri chicken
- as dip for egg rolls or spring rolls
💭 FAQs
The sauce tastes fruity, super hot (I'm not exaggerating!), sweet, flavorful, and pungent.
Pick a sweet mango variety (i.e. Indian mangoes are very sweet!) and reduce the chilies to the minimum heat that you can take. If you want to add only 1 chili or half of it, you can do this. You can also add a 1 tablespoon Honey to make this hot sauce sweeter.
You won't be able to make it completely sugar-free, because mango is a naturally sweet tropical fruit. But you can reduce the sweetness by picking a mango variety that isn't that sweet.
Mango nectar is not suitable because it contains a lot of water and sugar. You would have to cook it down a lot more to get to a thick sauce consistency. Also, the water content in the nectar would reduce the shelf-life of your mango sauce. Commercial mango nectar may also contain artificial preservatives.
You can try reducing the mango quantity in the recipe and adding some peach or pineapple instead.
Theoretically, yes, but your sauce will turn out super sweet with mango jam. It will have a different consistency too.
Yes, this mango habanero sauce is both gluten-free and vegan.
Dear Reader, how are you planning to enjoy your mango habanero sauce?
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with Spices and Herbs
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📖 Recipe
Mango Habanero Sauce Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 Cup Mango
- 3 Habanero Peppers pepper stems removed
- ½ Inch Ginger Fresh peeled
- 2 Large Garlic Cloves peeled
- ¼ Cup Water
- ½ Cup Vinegar
- ½ Teaspoon Salt
- ¼ Teaspoon Black Pepper Ground
- Juice of one Lime
Instructions
- Peel and cut your mango into smaller chunks.1 Cup Mango
- Add to a blender jar, mango pieces, whole habanero peppers, ginger, garlic, and water.1 Cup Mango, 3 Habanero Peppers, ½ Inch Ginger Fresh, 2 Large Garlic Cloves, ¼ Cup Water
- Blend to a smooth paste.
- Keep a saucepan ready and transfer the blended sauce to the pan. Heat up the pan with its contents. Keep over low heat setting.
- Add the vinegar, salt, and pepper.½ Cup Vinegar, ½ Teaspoon Salt, ¼ Teaspoon Black Pepper Ground
- Mix the content well and heat up gradually so that the sauce thickens.
- Cook until the sauce bubbles on low heat. Take from heat and let cool.
- Stir in lime juice.Juice of one Lime
- Let the sauce cool a little more for 5 minutes and then bottle up. Please use only clean sterilized bottles or jars.
- Store in a cool and dry place.
Olli Coker says
Sorry, but I don't see a yield volume... just '1 Jar'-- which isn't useful.
half-pint? Pint? 500ml? larger?
Gonna try a double recipe using Scotch Bonnet peppers. I'll let you know how it turns out.
Helene Dsouza says
Hi Olli, sorry for the late reply and for the missing info. The recipe quantity is about 12 ounces. Did you end up making it with scotch bonnet peppers? I have some growing right now, and I was playing with the idea of making this with those hot peppers too.
Rafael says
Wow that is some beautiful looking sauce.. Unfortunately I didn't grow habaneros this year but they're easy to find at the grocery store. Hopefully I can find them this color so I can make the sauce.
Helene Dsouza says
Yeah and if you can get bright orange mangoes too, that way the color will turn out bright orange. But even if you use red habaneros, you will still get a nice shade.
Mary S says
I quadrupled the recipe and it came out so hot and smoky! I did add 4 more habaneros as mine were a bit smaller. Holy cow it’s hot! But great on anything!
Helene Dsouza says
Wow, that does sound hot. lol Habanero, small or large, are all hot. The size usually doesn't determine the hotness. Generally speaking, this can be applied to most chilis. Glad you loved the heat Mary. 🙂
Amy says
I love this! I've made it many times and it is always delicious. I made a new batch this morning with eight cloves of garlic, seven habaneros and about an inch long ginger knob. Otherwise I follow the recipe to a T. What I really like is the heat moves around to different places in my mouth depending on how long it's been either in my mouth or swallowed. I need to make more of your recipes, Helene! Be well.
Helene Dsouza says
Hi Amy, I think I need to share more hot sauce recipes. Yeah I like this hot sauce too because, as you described it, the heat moves around in the mouth. Thanks so much for sharing, I appreciate it!! 🙂
Neil says
My homegrown orange habaneros range in size from around the size of the last joint of my pinky finger, to a few that are almost as big as a pear. So, it would be really helpful if someone could post the amount of habaneros to use *by weight* rather than just saying "3 habaneros". Anybody? Thanks!
Helene Dsouza says
Hi Heil, you can just add 1-2 habaneros, make a taste test, to see if it's spicy hot enough. Add more if you like. Not every chili pepper contains the same heat so giving weight details won't be that helpful.
jimAND ROSE nashwinter says
going to make it and adding one ghost pepper?
Helene Dsouza says
I bet it's going to be super hot with a ghost pepper!! All the best
Len Blas says
I finally decided to make this but I used two white peaches instead of the mango and it turned out just as I expected. The sweetness from the peaches added just the right amount of sugar taste for my liking. I added a couple more of the habaneros and it was devilishly HOT. Thank you so much for the recipe, this will be my “go to” for any hot sauces I need.
Helene Dsouza says
Oh love the peach twist on this recipe! I will try that in the next days, thanks for the idea. 🙂
Wendy says
Love this. A little hotter than what I wanted so I added 1/2 cup of sugar and 1/2 cup of pineapple juice and it was perfect 👌🏼
Helene Dsouza says
thanks for sharing Wendy. It will be helpful to others. 🙂
Dana says
Phenomenal! I added just a touch of honey...AMAZING!
Helene Dsouza says
Thanks so much for your feedback 🙏
G Denskus says
Good combination of tastes. Sweet, garlicky and definitely spicy! I used red habanero peppers.
Helene Dsouza says
Lovely! I hadn't tried it with red habaneros yet.
Jorke says
I just love it, but i put one big habanero more! 🤭
Helene Dsouza says
bet it was nice hot 😀
Jorke says
I just love it, but i put one big habanero more 🤭
Steve says
This is fckn dope af thanks for uploading this lol
Helene Dsouza says
you are welcome 😀
Sam says
Can this be processed for longer storage? We had a bounty of habaneros this year.
Helene Dsouza says
Mine lasted for about 10 months in the fridge. You can sterilize the filled jars in a water bath if you are making a bigger batch. That way your sauce will last for a long time on the shelf.
Peter says
I also had sooo many habaneros this year some of them actually went bad
Sues says
Ahh this goes so perfectly on everything! I'm a huge fan of SPICE and I love how mango and heat go so well together. Is it bad to just eat this with a spoon?? 🙂
Helene Dsouza says
So I did that because I couldn't help myself and just ate the hot sauce with a spoon but I did it only once because it was F-I-R-E! 😆
Lane Patten says
This is an amazing sauce! And I especially love the list of other sauces at the bottom. I love, love, love sauces!!
mjskitchen says
My mouth is already burning but it's a happy burn! 🙂
Helene Dsouza says
Ah yes the pain is bliss =D